America's Mythical Heartland

Comparing the Red and Blue States

Economically, the "heartland" is the nation's least productive, least self-reliant, most anemic segment of the economy, the biggest gobbler of government welfare in the form of farm subsidies, the most rapacious abuser, at taxpayers' expense, of mining rights, grazing rights and water rights. As economist and columnist Paul Krugman noted recently, "blue America subsidizes red America to the tune of $90 billion or so each year." To top it off, those heartland states' murder, divorce, depression and suicide rates are higher than in "blue" states. Red-blooded conservatism has never seemed so grim, so hungry for hand-outs, so capably deluding.